The medal count: U.S., China creating 'parallel Olympics'

BEIJING -- U.S. athletes are doing well in the sports their country traditionally cares about.

Chinese athletes are doing well in the sports their country traditionally cares about, plus some in which they have created instant tradition based on success.

“What we have here is a parallel Olympics,” said David Wallechinsky, author of “The Complete Book of the Olympics.”

“We in the United States are focused on swimming, track and field and basketball, and we hardly notice that China just won five gold medals in sports like badminton, shooting and women’s weightlifting.”

While pool swimming (as opposed to open water) and track have by far the most medals at stake, U.S. dominance there likely will not be enough to keep China from topping the gold medal count.

“A lot of people are saying China is traditionally not as strong in the second week, but traditionally they don’t win xx gold medals in the first week,” said Steve Roush, chief of sports performance for the U.S. Olympic Committee.

“I’m not sure tradition is the best predictor of the future where China is concerned.”

China led 35-19 in the gold medal tally after Sunday’s action, the final day of pool swimming, in which the U.S. won 12 of 32 golds and China just one.

It is no surprise that Chinese media are among many worldwide that list the medal standings by gold rather than total medals, where the United States leads 65-61.

Roush and other USOC officials long had predicted that China would have exceptional results based on its Project 119, which identified 119 potential medal events and focused time and money on them.

“For the non-believers, it is reality that the Chinese investment over the past six or seven years has proved to be successful in events where they typically had not succeeded on the international level,” Roush said.

While U.S. athletes should win several gold medals in team sports that end later this week, their only hope to surpass China depends on doing better in track and field than seems reasonably possible — especially after failing to win the men’s shotput and both the men’s and women’s 100-meter dash.

An everything-goes-right view would have the United States winning 31 gold medals in the second week of the Olympics, which would make the total 48, or a whopping 12 more than the total four years ago in Athens.

China won 32 golds in Athens. While many sports they have dominated here are over, the Chinese should add to their current total with three more golds in table tennis, three more in diving, and one or more in boxing and gymnastics, with others possible in canoe-kayak and track and field.

These are possible places for the United States to add to its gold total.

Beach volleyball, two; baseball, one (unlikely); basketball, two (expected); BMX cycling, one; gymnastics, two; equestrian, one; sailing, one; soccer, one; softball, one (expected); taekwondo, one; volleyball, one; and water polo, one.

The United States has a shot at 16 gold medals in track and field, but its athletes are favored for only seven: men’s and women’s 400 meters, women’s 200, men’s 400 hurdles, decathlon and both 1,600-meter relays.

“Our Olympic team is performing well,” Roush insisted. “This isn’t a matter of the United States losing the gold medal count but of China stepping up and winning it.”

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Lin Dan of China during the men's gold medal match in badminton. Lin won. Credit: Indranil Mukherjee / AFP / Getty Images

Comments

[Chris]

Your comment "It is no surprise that Chinese media are among many worldwide who list the medal standings by gold rather than total medals, where the United States leads 65-61." is totally misleading. It is International Olympic Committe policy to rank the medal table according to the number of gold medals won. As a proof of this i would like to refer to the official medal table of the Athens Olympics: China came in second with 32 gold and 63 medals in total while Russia was below them in third spot with 27 gold and with 92 medals all up. Ten minutes research verified the outlined statement was a misrepresentation of the accepted system. Changing the way that the medal tally is presented internationally to mislead the readership is poor journalism. Lift your game Philip

[Johnson]

Please don't say bronze equals gold. What do you think if Phelps get eight bronze?

[David]

What do you get if you adding/mixing all the elements of Gold + Silver + Bronze ?
= Pretending your are the winner. LOL... Come on, get real!

[Jerry]

If you are under 16 years of age you may watch the Olympics, but you may not participate.

[Pierre]

Steve Roush said "they don't win xx gold medals in the first week". "xx gold medals"? O RLY?

[ilt]

Looking at government investment doesn't really work, unless you factor in the GDP. For example, the US can afford not to invest much from a governmental standpoint because its population is wealthy enough for most families to finance their children's participation in sports. On the other hand, in a country like China, despite having a much larger population, a large portion of the population is still extremely poor (keep in mind that 8 years ago, the per capita gdp of China was still approximately 800 USD). You can't really compare...

[Perplexed Brit]

Yeah - where did all those swimming events come from anyway? You've seen one obscure variation on an obscure theme, you've seen them all...

If the event count in some of the other sports (cycling, rowing, sailing...) was the same as that for the swimming, the whole medal table would be skewed to the OTHER side of the Atlantic...

Not really concerned over here though - just as long as we stay ahead of the Australians !!

[Tim Turner]

And if it's not enough to count second and third places so that America does better than China, then will you start including fourths and fifths? Silver just means you didn't come first. America started the "Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser" rubbish; so let's paraphrase. Show me a bad loser, and I'll show you an american loser.

[Robert Adanto]

By 2012 China will begin to do very well or perhaps even dominate events such as boxing, basketball and swimming, traditional areas of US success. The Chinese have imported coaches and adopted methods via globalization they had never had access to before in the past, and the sky is the limit for this emerging superpower. I wonder if they've also made a committment to winter sports as well. For all the attention given to the great Chinese fire-wall, these games have been truly exceptional. One has to wonder where we'd be if we didn't have Michael Phelps.

[KAra]

I don't know America, how about using the medal table calculations that the IOC and majority of competing nations use, instead of the one which puts you at the top of the ranking.
Now if the USA had more Gold medals than the Chinese it would be interesting to see which medal ranking they used?

[Shania]

I just thought it's rather silly to rank by medal counts. If gold, silver and bronze are all the same, then the podum would be flat.

[Ned Nelson]

China is a nation to be reckoned with, I think for sure they will be a super power like never before-- goodbye good olde USA

[Lat]

ehm
in the rest of the world the medal count is order by gold,silver,bronze not by "total"

http://tinyurl.com/5gnntm

[Andrew Stafford]

This was always going to happen if you looked at the Chinese medal progression over the last 3 olympics, and then factored in that they automatically qualified for all sports as the hosts. In 2012, I think they will top the medal tally again. The Chinese are a fiercly proud and determined people, and have a singular focus all the way from the president down to joe bloggs to top the medal table.

[susan smith]

An olympic bronze isn't a gold medal...

What a poorly written article!

[Heindrich]

Haha... Americans are such bad losers, only USA media sources rank by total medals. Perhaps the fairest method is to value medals by points... 3 for gold, 2 for silver and 1 for bronze. If you do that... China still tops it easily.

[Adrian Bayer]

I would counter the above poster, and use this system of scoring medals is more logical and less saying someone is a poor journalist.

3 points for a gold
2 points for a silver
1 point for a bronze.

So a snapshot of right now USA 22 Gold, 24 Silver, 26 Bronze for a total of 72 medals.
22gold X 3=66 24silver X 2=48 26bronze X 1=26
For a grand total of 140 points.

And China 39 gold, 14 silver, 14 bronze for a total of 57 medals.

39gold X3=117 14silver X 2=28 14bronze X1= 14
For a grand total of 159 points.

China (159 points) would be leading the USA (140 points) at this point of the olympics.

This scoring system makes the most sense to me, and then could cut out posts of mean posters.

[Frank]

I'm surprised (or perhaps I'm just ignorant) that nobody came up with a simple weighting system or the medals e.g. 3 points for gold, 2 points for silver and 1 for bronze. Given the current standings:

G S B Total
China 39 14 14 67
United States 22 24 26 72

applying the formula above should yield this:

G S B Total Points
China 39 14 14 159
United States 22 24 26 140

with China leading. I think this is the fairest method as just counting golds slight the achievements of the 2nd/3rd place winners, who after all are also medal winners, not does lumping all medals together make sense (if so, we should have Obama and McCain as joint presidents?)

[Alex]

Typical !!!

If the USA were winning more GOLD than OVERALL then for sure they would be displaying the Medals Table differently.

Just to note if Phelps hadnt won 8 golds (which IMHO devalues the swimming competition) then the USA would only have 14 GOLDS, just 2 more than Great Britain.

Just goes to show how poorly the USA is doing.

[T1NA]

Why is it ONLY about ATHLETES winning medals??? Is it because of the multi-million advertising ($$$) in endorsments that will follow since "MONEY makes the World go round"??? The Olympic motto has always been about the joy of athletes to participate in celebration of HUMANITY -- without the use of any performance-enhancing ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES, which is, obviously, the BIG SECRET (...hush-hush) of Olympians nowadays. For one, I would have liked to see Phelps-FLOP or Bolt-JOLT.

[Russell]

What a load of rubbish, seriously!! This article is so pro American anti Chinese its verging on xenophobia...oh i forgot, you sir are American, then it comes as no surprise. As Chris commented, the olympic games are ranked by total gold medals as opposed to total overall medals, this is the way it has always been done. I for one am pleased to see China, the up and coming superpower of the world challenging the United States and probably coming out on top. It shakes things up, makes it a little bit more interesting than the U.S. dominating as has happened in previous years, which to be honest is a bit of a bore.

I'm afraid Philip that you also try to make it sound as if the sports China has had success in don't really matter, as if they have been thrown in to give the countries like China a better chance of defeating the U.S. What about basketball and baseball??? The U.S. national games. We over here in Europe hardly know the rules, let alone have any chance of success in such sports.

Lastly I would like to add that the tone of this article really comes as no suprise. The media of the U.S. always seem to put a pro U.S. spin on everything I have ever had the misfortune of reading. The worse thing about this is the people of the U.S. are so blind to it and tend to act accordingly, really, its embarassing to witness. Roll on the day America fails!

[TrueFan1947]

With 5 times the population of the USA, China SHOULD have proportionally more medals, period.

[Metric System]

Was curious about the two counting systems so did a quick browse through the leading newspapers of some major countries. The US is the only country I found using the total medal count. The ones using the non-US system are UK (the Guardian), France (La Liberation), Japan (Asahi Shimbun), Germany (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Spain (El Pais), Canada (Globe and Mail), and of course China (People's Daily). I don't read any Russian but would like to find out.

It's just like the metric system.

[deangelo]

Who goes to the Olympics looking for silver or bronze? Its all about the gold.
how many excuses does Team USA going to make to make their fans feel better? So sad.

[synergymus]

to ilt:
I disagree with you completely from my discussion with my chinese colleges the biggest difference is the huge funding of sports through our public K-12 schools and Colleges and University. Swimming for example. Most Middle and High Schools have swim teams in the US in addition there are public pools all of the place. There are almost no pools in china and swimming is not available to K-12 kids whatsoever!!!

[David Drapeau]

Perhaps the individual performances (or those of particular teams, in team events) are the most exciting stories of the Olympics?

E.g., it sucks for Mark Spitz that due to "medal inflation" in swimming he didn't get a chance to compete in as many races as Michael Phelps (since they had fewer similar events in his day). Now Phelps bumps Spitz even though their intra-Games sweeps were similarly remarkable.

I don't know what the ranking is for just Gold medals, but the US is leading China on medals per capita just now, the two countries ranked 41 and 58 respectively, out of 72 countries that have so far won medals. I'm talking per capita, of course, since simple totals are bound to favour richer, bigger countries. Perhaps similar for just-golds?

Source for medals per capita: http://tinyurl.com/5m34tn

[Irfon]

It astonishes me that the American media, having found that the U.S is second by a massive margin in the medal tables invent their own way of calculating it to put their country on top. The U.S lead only marginally in the 'total medals won regardless of type count', what will the media do if China overtakes them in this count too? Count the relay as 4 medals? Disregard sports they don't like?

[Dean Wilson]

It's funny how the U.S. is the only country in the entire world to count accumalitive medals and therefore come out on top of the medal standings. There is a very simple reason why this should not be the case, if some-one has a bronze medal they would be just as equal as some-one with a gold, ludicrus.

[Reginald]

Chris is absolutely right-- the official IOC rankings are based on whichever country wins the *most gold medals*, and this is the international standard.

Every country in the world, and media throughout the world, therefore rank the countries based on gold medals won-- always has been that way, always will be. Look at the BBC, Australian and NZ news services, India, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, aka the entire world, the ranking are done by gold medal. (There are a couple news outlets in Canada that use total medals but even there, gold medals are the standard-- as is the case for more respectable publications in the USA.)

The reason for the gold medal-based rankings is obvious-- when we rank teams or individuals in any sport, do we use 2nd/3rd/4th-place finishes? No, of course not, we rank based on wins. One could make up all kinds of dumb ranking systems in the Olympics to favor the USA-- since we have the most athletes and the longest continuous "big-money sports" tradition, we also have the most 4th-place finishes, most 5th-place finishes and so forth. So why stop with 2nd/3rd places giving silver/bronze medals? Why not use Top 5 finishes? Top 10 finishes? USA looks even more dominant them.

Obviously, that's just ludicrous-- the entire world ranks countries based on the gold medals. This is not in any way to denigrate the accomplishments of athletes with silver and bronze medals, or 5th-place finishes, or 9th-place finishes. It's obviously something impressive just to make the Olympics.

But in comparing countries, there is one and only one international standard, and that's whoever wins the most gold medals. Anything else is just pathetic Enron-style number juggling to make our performance look better than it actually is.

The hard truth is that the Chinese are demolishing us in this Olympics, winning 39 gold medals to the USA's 22 golds. The margin's gargantuan-- it's not even close. So China is the new international sports power. No big deal-- in a couple weeks, we'll be looking forward to football season anyhow.

Seriously, if you all at the LA Times want to consider yourselves a respected newspaper, you should use the international standard for things like this rather than some number-massaging that NBC uses to attract advertising. You just look like fools using overall medals or any other system. Just rank based on the gold medals and adhere to the standard.

[you've got to be joking!]

Every medal table in the world except the US has China leading with the US second....it's so obvious what the US media is doing by changing the counting method to pretend they are first. Please....by the US counting method, a country with 25 bronzes comes ahead of a country with 24 golds. Give me a break. Admit it - China has thumped the US well and good in this Olympics so far.

[SL]

I believe the Olympics count (at least in the past) is calculated as follows: 3 points for gold, 2 for silver and 1 for bronze. The country with the most points win, which is why China, based on the latest count, is currently ahead 159 - US 140.
Why be pessimistic? There's still another week of competitions, and the US may still win honestly, or at least, make the race more interesting.

[Uncle Sam]

The United States wins a gold medal in:

Freedom of Press
Freedom of assembly
and democratic elections

[Nick]

Who cares.

I've been watching the Olympics, I find the competition interesting, and if China wants to spend billions to dominate all the lesser-known "sports" competitions for the sake of national pride, I say go for it. With athletes shopping countries to find one with which they can qualify for the games in their sport, all the subjective amateur bad judging, age scandals, drug scandals, gender scandals, silly "sports", etc, the games could use a little less emphasis on national winning totals and more emphasis on real athletic competition. I say let China revel in their national champion female badminton program (for example), and we'll be happy for our basketball dominance, and everyone can be proud of their accomplishments.

[Andy]

Have to hand it to China, they have really blown away the US in Gold. However, I don't see how other countries can talk about the US and how bad suck though. Having lived in several other countries other than the US, life opportunities are limited everywhere else. You can accomplish anything you want in the US generally speaking. It always has been, and will always be the land of opportunity. That's something all the gold in the world can't buy.

[Nancy]

I'm glad that Google has been following the rest of the world's example in their medal count.

[Eric]

What's with all of the America bashing? Of course this has an American slant, it's an American article. And it's not like we're talking about a big outlet like USA Today, MSNBC, or CNN. This is the Los Angelas Times. I'm not sure why somebody in Britain is reading this. I don't read the Dover Daily.

And I'm not totally getting the "if America didn't have Michael Phelps, they'd be doing terrible" argument. It's like saying "if Hitler had gotten accepted into art school, World War 2 would have never happened." Both arguments arn't relevant to reality. Michael Phelps is one of the greatest Olympians of all time. Not the greatest in my opinion, but 8 gold medals is unquestionably outstanding.

[Prime Customer]

So I guess China is the place athletes should head to in the pursuit of excellence ... ?

It seems 50-70% of the time, athelete X trained in the U.S., or is coached by U.S. coaches, went to college at Auburn/USC/Duke, whatever, then pops up in the Olympics "representing" some other country.

The ability of athletes to compete under the flag of a country other than that responsible for their development undercuts the significance of "national" results. Same for US athletes who hire foreign coaches.

Talk of representing countries is fine, but most athletetes would (and do) trade their countries in an instant if it gives them a personal advantage. Modern athletics is egocentric narcissism.

China is a hell-hole; like all totalitarian systems, they feel compelled pursue extravagant symbols to cover up this fact. The Olympics is just easily engineered and controlled propaganda to them. Pocket change to create a false image of China.

[MNPundit]

The American Media counted by total medals in Athens too. Personally I say time we face facts, our empire is crumbling and China is beating us. Give up? No! Do better? Be smarter? Yes! Because let's face it, when it comes to America there's a lot of room for improvement in the area of intelligence.

[give it a break!!]

When I think of the olympics, I think of an opportunity to bring countries together and to celebrate those individuals who are truly gifted in their skills. The article above was simply one American's interpretation as to the success of a country. In America, we are entitled to our opinions and can freely express them to the public. Personally, I never considered the medal count to hold some significance as to which country is better than another. Let us just celebrate the hard work all of our oplympians have done. A gold is obviously better than a bronze, but on the magnitude of an individuals ranking in the world, 3rd is not bad right? Let us not belittle the meaning of winning a medal.

[james]

I'm rather surprised by the numbers of international readers of the LA Times that have posted. I wouldn't have thought there were 1) so many international readers or 2) so many would have posted.

Jia Yo!

[Don]

The current Olympics reminds me of the ones in the 60's and 70's in which the Soviet Union dominated, and the U.S. was always a distant second. China, like the pre-fall Soviet Union, targets and then manipulates the natural system. So good for them, hope they like the ROI they're getting for the upteem millions of dollars they are spending to win the most gold. But like the Soviet Union, the system will crash under its own weight at some time in the future (probably like its economy will as well!). You can spend an infinite amount of money to show the world a new face; but if 99% of your population is still dirt poor, is your face any prettier?

[Jack]

I congratulation on Chinese team. But I also see a bunch of European losers here. They can't complete with USA team and just put hope on whoever can beat USA.

[Nathan]

Wow, I have to say it's interesting to see the Anti-American reaction here. To lump all Americans together on a poor point of veiw clearly displays your "open-mindedness" as well. To hate Americans simply because the American media presents medal count leaders differently is rediculous. I'm American, have I seen China doing better in the Olympics?...absolutely. To think all americans are dumb, deaf, and blind because of our media is truly upsetting. This is not an entire nation of sick-minded egomaniacs who simply want to dominate. I see a friendly country pride that I'm sure your countries display as well. To the person who commented that American dominance in the Olympics is a "bore", I understand that, but don't dismiss the great things America has done because of it. I'm not proud of recent actions by our government, please understand a lot of Americans aren't. Everyone I know cares about this planet and the people in it. We don't sit at home everyday and high-five American accomplishments so before you bash Americans understand that your perceived "American dominance" does not mean we are blind!

To the person who said "Roll on the day America fails", shame on you. I'm sorry but as I hope your country would be there for us I'm willing to bet we would be there for you. China, in it's splended glory during this Olympics still has a government of extreme oppression. You are blinded by the wonderful fireworks and the mass of brilliant performers, get a grip!!! Once these Olympics are over there are still a huge amount of oppressed Chinese under a goverment that even you should be concerned with. By lumping all Americans to views the media displays means you are just as guilty with your thinking. You have fallen to media perception without truly knowing and it's a shame.

All this is said with love and I appreciate hearing your point of view. I do ask you consider that the majority of Americans are kind and to me it's silly to create such a void with us. Enjoy the Olympics because I certainly have, even if we do lose!

Nate

[Ralph]

Winning at all costs. That's the mantra of the US news media. Its all about money and ratings. This is why NBC and other US news organizations are pushing the Total medal count as opposed to the Gold medal count. Here's how the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo medal count is reported (Wikipedia): USA G36 S26 B28, Total:90; Rank 1st. Then we have Soviet Union G30 S31 B35, Total: 96; Rank 2nd.

So how is it that before it was ranked by Gold and now (supposedly) it is ranked by Total? Seems rather convenient eh? You can also check the Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2002 where the same system is used.

NBC and the US media want to keep Americans in perpetual darkness and ignorance as regards their fall from the top of the Olympic heap. Where's the proof that the medal count in the past was based on Total?

[antarctica]

It is absolutely and ridiculously pathetic for the American media that they rank countries according to the total number of medals instead of "gold" medals, which is the official method and applied everywhere in the World except in The Glorious Super Nation of United Wonderful States of Marvelous America! China is kicking some serious butt, and it seems like it is hurting someone very much! So, they decided to twist facts and distort realities, just like they did with Weapons of Mass Destruction/Distraction in forcefully occupying Iraq. Oh yeah, the rest of the World so stupid that we did not realize this cover-up. Maybe, they will rank countries according to the number bronzes in 2012, so that they would be ranked first.

[silvia]

so much for all those soar grape comment, pls!! China is doing pretty good in this Olympics while USA sucks this time. Just take a look at the Track and Field. How many gold do we have so far?

At least have the decency to admit that we didn't do well this time and catch up next time!

[Steven]

Didn't you realize that the US is the best proponent of propaganda the world has ever seen, lying or twisting truth comes easily to them. Imagine...A country wins 19 bronze medals and the US announces that this is more successful than a team that only managed 18 GOLD. hahaha. They have no shame, not one ounce. nada. So hilarious. CHINA is the worlds superpower now, the Olympics was simply announcing it to the world. Still, people laugh when I say this. Dumb hyenas. You will see.

[Steven]

Didn't you realize that the US is the best proponent of propaganda the world has ever seen, lying or twisting truth comes easily to them. Imagine...A country wins 19 bronze medals and the US announces that this is more successful than a team that only managed 18 GOLD. hahaha. They have no shame, not one ounce. nada. So hilarious. CHINA is the worlds superpower now, the Olympics was simply announcing it to the world. Still, people laugh when I say this. Dumb hyenas. You will see.

[wh]

To James,
You are not alone when comparing the now China to the then USSR. Mind you though, if you think China will collapse like the Soviet, you might be disappointed. While China is portait in the U.S. as a backward, cheap labor filled country which is run by a crule government that has no regard to human right, the majority of the Chinese people actually do support their government. We don't need a voting system to prove this, just look at the faces of their people and the waves of Chinese flags during the Olympic games. The reason is economy. Who'd overthrow a government that has lead their country in double digit economic growth for 30 years?! Like the old say goes: it's the economy, stupid!

China is a country with 1.3 billion possed people who seem to have only two things on their mind: make more money and win Olympic gold. They might actually get some of that:)

[bluemoon]

Don,

You're so wrong because you don't know anything about China. The Chinese (not just the government but also the people) are very driven and very motivated these days because they want to be competitive in the world after being an irrelevant country for a century. The Olympics are just one example of their determination to succeed. Get yourself better informed/educated. China has already moved away from a state-controlled economy to capitalism. There is an emerging middle class in that country and their government has some 3 trillions in reserve. How is that the same as the Soviet Union? I'm more worried about the American system crashing under its own weight with so many deadbeats in our society who just want government handouts. Let's face it, times have changed and this is no longer the 20th century. If Americans don't better themselves, Asia will bury us.

[Paco]

For all those that think the US is changing the way they keep track because of a low Gold medal count...no, they have ALWAYS scored like this. this isn't a change, it's always been done this way and always will.

And it's not surprising China is winning, not only is it in China this time around, but the Chinese government does a great job of turning their 3 and 4 year olds into professional athletes at a young age. What a life.

[Matt Schoewe]

This is ridiculous. Of course they should list countries according to most total medals. Otherwise, why award them?

Foreigners are so inferior.

[Casey]

All you all saying china is this new super power and such I dont get it. Yes they are winning the medal count in olympics (2 golds should be stripped for underaged gymnastics, but they still would be leading by a lot). But how have they proven a super power? What have they done internationally to do that? Yes they are a economic power and have a lot of people but india has a lot of people too, and the middle east has a lot of economic power, that does not equal super power, they are not influencial enough to be a super power as of yet and all of you saying USA sucks and China is the new top dawg...think about it do you REALLY want that....look at tibet and all the other human attrocities they have commited, maybe in 10-20 years they will have fixed all that and be a good place but right now i dont think i want them as a super power. I world is still unipolar, but is moving toward multipolar thats just how it goes.

[Casey]

All you all saying china is this new super power and such I dont get it. Yes they are winning the medal count in olympics (2 golds should be stripped for underaged gymnastics, but they still would be leading by a lot). But how have they proven a super power? What have they done internationally to do that? Yes they are a economic power and have a lot of people but india has a lot of people too, and the middle east has a lot of economic power, that does not equal super power, they are not influencial enough to be a super power as of yet and all of you saying USA sucks and China is the new top dawg...think about it do you REALLY want that....look at tibet and all the other human attrocities they have commited, maybe in 10-20 years they will have fixed all that and be a good place but right now i dont think i want them as a super power. I world is still unipolar, but is moving toward multipolar thats just how it goes.

[lee]

Bronze and silver aren't as good as gold, but it's recognized as the top 3 winning positions. If you finished 4th or 5th, you didn't simply didn't win.

According to "American" counting system, France and Russia are also in top 5. Clearly it benefits out nations as well. I don't believe Korea performed better in the Olympics on a one gold lead. If we unexpectedly take over the gold lead in China (it won't happen) and we suddenly switch back to IOC standards, then I'll admist we're sore losers.

A good idea would be to assign points to the medals. 3 for gold, 2 for silver, and 1 for bronze. That IMO best reflects how a nation performed in the olympics, and it's better for smaller nations with less participants. A country with 7 golds and 1 silver, did not fare better than a country with 5 of each medals.

[jack]

Typical, one crack journalist writes something stupid and the rest of the world calls the entire of USA stupid.

[Joseph Gibson]

I love it when people will always complain about "foreign" host countries, and yes from US citizens. Why is it that the US always feels more superior than everyone else, it just creates problems. US are doing well, like everyone else... but China is doing what it promised. China hasn't competed much in Olympics compared with Great Britain and United States, remember that.

How the Chinese go about their business is none of us westerners business either. Chinese civilization is far superior than the wests, and whats good about it is atleast the Chinese don't interfere with other countries affairs, what happens when that day comes when China just decides to be like the US on foreign policy? Personally, I doubt they will. China will give good hospitality to anyone, and like everywhere else, you will always have the idoits that ruin it(or try too).

[llev]

We (the Americans) do not do well in sports like trampoline, syncronized diving and table tennis. I have never even seen these sports televised in this country except for the Olympics. They truly are not considered of any importance here. It is not xenophobia to allude to this, it is simply the truth. China has done extremely well in the sports they care about, and we have done extremely well in the sports we care about. There is some overlap in gymnastics, but let's be honest here- have you ever heard of a famous American table tennis team? As for men's gymnastics-do not forget that the team lost its two greatest hopes for the gold due to injury just before the games. It's painful but it happens, it just happened to China when they lost their best track and field star due to injury. I feel sympathy for any athlete who loses that opportunity and that is the right reaction. The virulent anti-American posters on this site need to wake up and get a life.

[Val]

I am saddened to see the out pouring of hate on all sides. The Chinese are clearly ahead by IOC's own rules, and frankly I don't see that as a national disaster (tip for our belt freinds: maybe, just maybe this is because of a liberal or European conspiracy...) And no, they are not stealing knowledge gathered in US universities, as someone implied. How many top coaches at Duke or USC specialize in badminton, table tennis or women's weightlifting? :-)) (or even excruciating gymnastic exercises on 6-16 year old girls)
I also don't think there is not conspiracy to run a "parallel olympics". Countries are allowed to care (eve passionately) about their own sports. There is no gold medal for sumo (yet!). But even if there was, I can't imagine many American guys would begin training...

[Kara]

China takes children when the are 3-4 years old and makes one sport their entire life... until they turn 14 and illegally get all of the medals they can for China. Then they throw them back out on the street. I saw one interview with a girl who had been an olympian, and after she was done competing she had to live in a one room hell hole with her mother and couldn't even get medication for her diabities. That is the difference between American and Chinese atheletes, the same difference as between our countries... FREEDOM.

[z h]

Wow - there are a lot of p.o.'d Brits posting here. Everyone seems to be piling on about one sentence : "It is no surprise that Chinese media are among many worldwide that list the medal standings by gold rather than total medals, where the United States leads 65-61.". The rest of this article is about how well the Chinese are doing, how they've really pulled ahead in many areas, and where the US may be able to do well in the coming week.

I've heard an awful lot of Brits [on boards and some terrible interviewer on BBC radio] harping that the U.S.'s glory days are over, time to step out of the limelight, etc. as if we should recognize the similarities between our national problems and the decline of the British Empire in the 19th and 20th centuries. While the US is certain to go to hell eventually, having a bunch of daft, frothing limeys commenting on message boards isn't likely to have any effect on the process. My two pence.

[HasABrain]

Did anyone follow the individual women all-around gymnastics competition on NBC? The "expert" on NBC complained that the international judges are not fair several times. I don't know what he would say now since American girls won both gold and silver medals!

I don't understand why so many people complained about China's spending on sports. You can't compare China and U.S. It's like compare apple and orange. I can safely say that the total spending on sports in U.S. is MUCH MUCH more than what China does based on how much TIME and MONEY I spend to support my kids sport activities.

[Kellygobraugh]

This is how I determine the score: Gold = 3 pts, Silver = 2 pts, Bronze = 1pt.
With this method, China is heading 159 to 140 at this point.

[Don]

BlueMoon,
Having worked for a Chinese based company for eight years and having made several trips over there as well, I think I'm pretty qualified to talk about China. Perhaps it is you who should educate yourself beyond the media newsbites about the truth underlying the so-called Chinese rise to power. Not to mention the history of China which one long 5,000+ year roller-coaster ride of changing its mind as to whether China should open to the world or close to the world. The overwhelming vast majority of Chinese live on less than $60 per month. The so-called emerging middle-class you speak of is contained within a few coastside metropolis' and their numbers are ridiculously small compared to the approx 1.4 billion who live inland and who's state of existence remains unchanged during this temperal time of China (once again) opening its doors to the world. It won't last, and it would not surprise me if within our lifetimes we see another complete reversal of China going back into it shell.

[jack]

You can't compare US and China, because they are different. You can say 100 good things and 100 bad things about China or about USA. When the gold medal count of USA is in the 2nd, it's no big deal. By saying something like "althought we have less gold medals, but we have democracy" is rediculous. When the total medal count of China is in the 2nd place, it's no big deal. Can Chinese say something like "althought we have less total medal count, but we don't drop bombs and kill innocent people in Iraq and Afgan....".?

[DANIEL]

" USA sucks and China is the new top dawg...think about it do you REALLY want that....look at tibet and all the other human attrocities they have commited, maybe in 10-20 years they will have fixed all that and be a good place but right now i dont think i want them as a super power. I world is still unipolar, but is moving toward multipolar thats just how it goes. "

Posted by: Casey

IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, ONLY USA HAS USED THE ATOMIC BOMB TO KILL PEOPLE.

IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, THE US ARMY HAS KILLED MORE PEOPLE THAN THE BUBONIC PLAGUE.

IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, ONLY USA DO MODERN DAY PLUNDERS (i.e. Iraq, Korea, Vietnam) THESE WARS ARE ALL MASKED WITH POLITICAL REASONS BUT THE TRUTH IS THEY ARE THERE TO PLUNDER.

SO PLEASE STFU ABOUT CHINA BEING A BAD GLOBAL LEADER COZ IT DOESN'T GET WORSE THAN USA

[TonyP4]

It has been countless examples that Americans show their ugly personalities. Counting total metals is the recent one. Do not tell me a bronze is the same as gold. Americans just are cry babies and sore losers.

Why just enjoy the game? I cheer for Singapore, Mongolia, Jamaica, and any countries that do not use Speedo.

Phelps's records may not no meaning as they need to factor in the advantages of the pool and the suit (not counting whether the Americans cheat by using dopes as before).

[NAE]

Guys and Gals, The US is doing great. Those of you who think that the only medal count that counts is gold, then this must be your first olympics. Wecome. Te olympics had traditionally looked at overall medal count as the primary method of determin who won. Having the most golds is an added bonus. For those who arechearing that the US is be "knocked off", the US has only recently dominated in the Olympics (since 1996). We seem to be forgetting the reign of the East Germans and the Russians. Anyway, I will reitterate, the USA is winning what it must. The events that are imprtant to them and China is doing the same.

Here ends the lesson

[Bru]

My god. That was the by far most biased article I have ever read. The article seemed to condescend all sports that are not dominated by the American team. Not all country are focused on sports like basketball fanatically. In China, in rural schools, there isn't a desk in the school but there is a ping pong table.

[vei]

seeing all the bias in everybodys comments
china is only trying its best to promote themselves as a more 'socialized' country to match the developments and what not
the US is only summing up the total medal count as it would show its number one status ?
both have individual interests and have different concepts of media portrayal
this article alone should not provoke any negative comments or attacks
US and china are just trying to please each others own citizen obviously theyre both going to overstate their achievements lol
its obviously way easier to fall into majority opinion to support your fellow chinese or american ... or bash others
we should only question what we can FIX about countries
why complain when you can fix?

just enjoy the competition
everybodys trying their best in life already
just like in high school
competition is instigated
why compete when you can work together? just like in a simulated competitive environment - where athletes of different descent represent countries? what would allow countries to say someone was representing them? is it only dependent on the immigration laws?
seeing that the olympics is a competition between nations
there are obviously going to be patriotic feelings involved in comments

its easier to look at the moon at first sight but harder to notice that you were looking at a reflection

[Chris]

It is interesting how quickly a blog can decend into an arguement over living conditions in different countries. I catagorically support the efforts of all the athletes from around the world. Once an athlete gives 100% i can not realistically expect more. My CONCERN is with media spin and the compromise of jounalistic integrity. My first comment had a shot at the writer of the article. It seems that the entire pulication of the LA Times follows this uniiquely American way of looking at the medal table. I would like to pose a question to the LA Times. According to your medal table Armenia with 5 Bronze medals is ahead of Slovakia with 3 Gold and 1 Silver. How could you possibly think this is an accurate reflection of true standings?

PS: To the Pommy who wants just wants to beat Australia - Us Aussies very much want to beat England - Cheers

[Mike]

Tim Turner, you are a douche

[Zac]

You guys are nuts... wasting your time on this junk article...

[jim]

Just reading through the posts I have one thing to say. America has major political and economic issues so does China, both countries have incredible media spinners, however, given the choice of countries to live in I would pick America over most other countries in the world, It's that simple. I have spent the last five years doing business in China and the reality is that the Chinese government has exerted great deal of effort in presenting this face to the world. America as world superpower is the best deal for all the western world whether we like it or not. E.O.S

[Matt]

So we did not get the gold in women's weightlifting, trampoline (really, are you kidding? trampoline?), badminton, ping pong, synchronized diving, Judo, etc.

Who cares?

Good for the Chinese. They were just better overall, and they should be given credit for it.

Maybe they should add "sports" like checkers, pool, bowling, and eating to the Olympics as well.

I think the Euros need to worry about their own below par performances.

[Perfect Competitor]

Very funny to read all the poking at the US over the medal counts -- looks like some out there deeply crave Chinese masters!

The U.S. record over 250 years: representative constitutional government, abolition of slavery, preserving the sovereignty of Europe (twice), defeating fascism, defeating communism, advancement of human rights and modern technology. All that's left is the defeat of socialism

China's record over 5000 years: inventing paper, gunpowder, movable type which led to nothing since their purpose was to amuse the egomaniacal emperors with their cities of castrated slaves.

Chinese philosophies (Buddhism and Confusicianism) are incoherent slogans and concepts designed to pacify a slave population. Chopsticks and the bizarre foods show the history of a culture heavily influenced by starvation..

Modern China is hardly different. They have adopted communism because it is the modern version of a materialistic slave society (a noxious import from the West). The emperor is now the Central Committee.

China has no moral authority and no potential for generating any... the world is just using their low-wage/slave labor for now. Filling our garages with useless trinkets we realize after the fact we don't need.

So if they think egocentric, materialistic spectacle of the Olympics is plus, let them have it ... dang, great badmiton players and gymnasts over there!

[S VIJAYAKUMAR]

This article can be shown as the best example for -- mentality.
How can you say country with higher number of medal as top performer than than the country won most gold. Then what is the point of winning gold,

Dear reporter as you value bronze and gold equal I have around 10 KG of Bronze at my home can you replace it with American gold? i would be happy to promote your ideas.

When America at lose they try to change the rule. World is changing you are not big anymore.

[Mary]

I am surprised at the comments for China. I think all the medals should count so we show support for our US Olympic team. We are supporting the US Olympic team. Good luck to the China Team and congratulations.. however we are supporting our US Olympic team. Anyone saying that the US should fail and promote China as a super power should go live in China. Those comments are so unpatriotic and should be ashamed for stating them.

[Sid]

I guess you could look it as the sibling case of the metric system. But doesn't that still tell you something?

[liu xiang]

Funny how those that are the most critical of the US can barely speak "Engrish".

[Perplexed Brit]

Whoo... !

You stirred up a storm! My post wasn't intended to be an attack on American values (I don't think it could be taken as such). Count the medals any way you like - who cares?

I do think there is room for re-visiting the whole concept of the Olympics, starting with obscure sports. Some of the posts on here illustrate the problem straight away - from the American side there have been derogatory remarks regarding badminton and table tennis. In fact here in the UK both are pretty popular, if not exactly mainstream. While I find it unbelievable that in swimming circles, the 200m Backstroke Long Course and the 200m Backstroke Short Course (two extra turns on the Short Course). are considered separate events. Somebody winning both would get two medals instead of one - what's that all about? Its all Backstroke !

To the people who expressed surprise at the number of foreign contributors to the topic (nice touch Matt Schoewe !!), its the Olympics, and the whole world is watching. All the news feeds are tuned to pick up anything to do with the subject. Most of us don't regularly read the Los Angeles Times (although it was nice to visit !). So it does seem unfair that the good people of Los Angeles find themselves in a position where they are defending the journalistic values of the whole USA.

It will be another two years (the Soccer World Cup) before there is a wider audience worldwide than that for the Olympics. I don't suppose the LA Times will have a very big readership boost for what, to the rest of the planet, is the most important sporting event in the world !!

[Ricardo]

PURE SPITE!!!

[Eddy]

The gold medal count & the overall medal count have different meanings. The gold medal count will points to individual performance while the total medal count points to overall performance. Some posts have suggested using 3, 2 & 1 pts for gold, silver & bronce respectively. The differences between the medals is much smaller than this. One only have to check the scoring system in different championship in many sport. Everyone probably prefers 1 gold to 2 silver but the one who got 2 silver is better than the 1 gold.

It is obvious that some event are more important than others.

BTW, I am Chinese & I am outrage by the some of the medals won by China. The issue of the judges are quite obvious. China has set its goal to win the most golds in this olympic & it is achiving it by many mean it deem appropiate.

[Chinese winner]

A true winner knows how to loose with honor. Shame on you.

[Paco]

I got to this blog by googling since I noticed another blog elsewhere attacking the US for using total medals (by the way, I only remember total medals tables in American newspapers even when the US had the most medals... it has pretty much been done this way throughout my life).

As far as the attacks in the comments... I read an article in the Atlantic Monthly not long ago about the Chinese internet. Apparently there is a gigantic Chinese online presence that hunts down foreign articles, websites, and blogs critical of China and attacks them through a variety of means. I think we might be seeing this happening here.

[Eric]

I just want to point out that this counting is not new in the US. It has been this way for at least the last 3 summer and winter olympics, maybe farther back then that (to young to really pay attention for earlier olympics). We count that way mainly because we often have multiple athletes that QUALIFY for the same event. Look at Jamaca's 1,2,3 in the womens 100m dash. Should you just ignore 2 and 3? That is a big accomplishment to be up there with your two team mates. If the US had got 1st in that race and Jamaca had just gotten 2 and 3, you guys would have that mean nothing. Even though they would have beaten out 2 other US atheletes; according to you all 2nd and 3rd are just 1st place losers right? I really just wanted to point out this counting method is nothing new. And one of the smartest things I have heard Bush say, the olympics are about Sports leave politics out of it.

[Jsmoke]

I for one think that a gold in table tennis is equal to a bronze in swimming, so all you bitter, hateful Eurotrash can go back to the drawing board on that one Poindexters! I mean get real here Euros, you guys are the biggest haters on Earth. We win at the actual sports, not friggin table tennis and badmiton. The sports we kick butt in get ripped from the Olympics because we dominate so much. Softball goes but table tennis can stay? Last I saw China dominates ping pong but you don't see them ripping that out of the OLY schedule. The US still is on top in the real athletic competitions, except soccer which is the most boring sport since tiddlywinks.

[Jsmoke]

Posted by: Mary | August 18, 2008 at 10:03 PM

"I guess you could look it as the sibling case of the metric system. But doesn't that still tell you something?

UHHH What? that is the most nonsensical comments i've ever read on a comment thread, congrats! You win the gold for being an idiot.

[vivian]

The US and Canada look really silly displaying the medal count this way. I prefer to metric way
10 for gold
5 for silver
1 for bronze.
the above poster is right, if Phelps would have won 3 bronze instead of 3 golds, the elation would not be the same. Try to be happy for another country for a change.
China's record in Tibet is sad, but so is the very illegal war against Iraq by the US, and it has done so many times in the past, with very real loss of lives because of US illegal interventions in foreign countries. Don't judge China until you have a good look at yourself first.

[Don]

I think that if the world really does want to judge the Olympics and who "won" by the quantity of gold medals, then we need to level the playing field. Lets face it, they give out a bazillion gold medals for sports like gymnastics, swimming, badminton, etc. but only one for the power sports like basketball. Can anyone say that a single persons gold medal on the Trampoline is equal to the gold medal for team basketball? No where, except in the gold medal count, is it equal. If we want to truly judge which country won an Olympics we need to devalue all the individual golds won and create a system in which all individual victories get lumped together and count as only 1 in the gold medal count. So in the gold medal count, there would be only 1 for swimming, 1 for gymnastics, 1 for ping-pong etc. just like there is only 1 for basketball, 1 for baseball, etc. This is of course not to belittle any individuals winning accomplishment; it is merely a way that we can score countries more evenly.

[antarctica]

To Jsmoke:

You call the "American football" a sport? It is not even played by feet! One of the most idiotic and aggressive sports (if not a Medieval warfare technique) on Earth! The average life expectancy of those "football" players are 50-something years. They are doped with all kinds of hormones and eat like oxen. And since they are so healthy, they get to live 50+ years. I would rather be a healthy, fit and agile ping-pong player than a diabetic, cholesterol-rich 50 year-old dude with sagging boobs and stomach fat who is doomed to go to grave in no time.

Another "smart" American asserts that the non-English speakers in this forum lack English fluency. Nearly all comments written by Americans here are filled with grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors. I advise you to look at the mirror and then come up with such ridiculous claims. Well, you can only speak "American", while I am at least able to communicate in 5 languages.

[antarctica]

Did you guys hear the news that some senators in the US appealed to the IOC that the Winter Olympic Games of Sochi (2014) should be re-assigned to somewhere else, since Russia has been occupying Georgia! I guess the Martians must have forcefully invaded and plundered Afghanistan and Iraq and led some 1 million people to death and 4 million more to complete displacement. Martians did so, because they suspected from Weapons of Mass Destruction/Distraction in Iraq. Moreover, the US did not kill 300,000 people with atomic bombs in Japan, it was just food poisoning! Well, the cheese had gone bad, they should not have eaten.

Those US senators made my day. That must be the joke of the year!

[Jinghao]

"With 5 times the population of the USA, China SHOULD have proportionally more medals, period."

With a GDP per capita 20 times that of China, the US SHOULD have proportionally more medals, period. After all, you need to eat before you can train. How many people in China can afford the 12000 Calories/day "diet" that Olympians like Phelps subscribes to?

Think about that, smartass.

[european]

So many people on this board are spewing hate and resentment at the United States for how its media displays the medal count but does anyone honestly think if the tables were reversed, China wouldn't do the same thing?

The country has invested so much money and pride in winning these games on their home turf. I am confident their media would display China on top if they were winning in the overall count but not the gold.

I think it all comes down to countries taking pride in their accomplishments and if the US is winning in overall count... then is it really that bad if they want to emphasize that?

On a political note, I too worry about the United States being crushed under the weight of a few lazy generations who have no fiscal responsibility and no sense of how the country's economy has shifted.

China WILL be a force to be recognized with for the next century. Americans should make NO mistake about that. Unless we reinvent ourselves and our economy now we will be at real risk of maintaining a strong place on the world stage. That said... China's growth should be admired... and feared. Chinese people I talk with seem to think that their country is somehow "better" or less aggressive... but wait and see what happens when 1.3 billion people run out of resources and have to go somewhere to get them.

[Foobar, Rockville, MD]

The following links show that "the US" has actually counted TOTAL medals for some time. America-beaters just stop eating at McDonalds and stop ranting about perceiving injustices, thank you kindly.
http://tinyurl.com/6q6cjh

http://tinyurl.com/5o4gkl
http://tinyurl.com/6ylmme

[Ryan]

Just a few points:

I'll be the first to admit, I feel good knowing that we are winning in the sports I am passionate about and that we are still ahead in the total medal count... why shouldn't I be, and why shouldn't the media portray things in a positive way? What's it to anyone else? Should we not be proud of what we did accomplish? I hope those of you from other countries can find it in your hearts to be proud of your own athletes... and I hope your media is focusing on the accomplishments of your countries' athletes and not on how they couldn't get as many gold medals as China...

I for one am impressed by the Chinese performances as an American, even if they are underaged, they sure are talented. I think the Visa commercial puts it best. When someone puts on such an incredible performance, humanity wins. I just hope this success doesn't perpetuate the circumstances surrounding their training. I hope they find that they can find success just like the US has without putting peoples lives on a track. But I am happy to welcome China as a new world power, with the better quality of life and education in China, just think how their input and innovation can improve the world!

Finally, I think this article is right in pointing out that each country seems to be doing well in the sports that country is most passionate about. Furthermore, I hope that the olympic committee does add more sports instead of taking them away. Athletes of all sports ought to get a chance to compete, so bring on Sumo wrestling and American Football (sure, the name doesn't make the most sense, but it's a great sport), and whatever else, and lets all stop whining about the medal count... it belittles the accomplishments and hard work of all of the athletes.

It's a shame to watch how low humans can be as a result of this competition (like in the US vs China baseball game and on this forum). Let's just try to keep these games in perspective.

[Yin Liu]

I'm Chinese. But I don't see why America can't tally total medal count. Gold is great, silver and bronze should be accounted for too, right? If my son got a bronze in Olympics I'd be very proud, too. China is beating the U.S. this time, though, total or gold. There are many reasons, and not all reasons are good and pretty. And I personally do prefer the American sports system to Chinese gold-medal-only-training-camp. When I went to college, there was no pool, not to mention my middle school or primary school. Most of the resource are poured into the handful Olympic gold hopefuls and the majority of the children are largely ignored in China. However, maybe the U.S. should start paying attention to the more "obscure" sports like table tennis and badminton. They are cheap and fun, and fight obesity as well, haha.

[antarctica]

I do not care how medals are won by China, USA or any other country. It is a competititon. As long as people wield their natural talent, I do not care who wins. What disgusts me the most is that the carefully-engineered systematic manupulation and disinformation disseminated by the biased American media outlets. It is like, if you are a person and defend your country, home and family against occupation by imperial forces, you become a terrorist; but, if you are a well-paid soldier of the imperialist country which single-handedly wants to dominate and exploit all World affairs, economy and energy resources and occupies and subsequently destroys every country that it deems "diabolical", you somehow become a freedom fighter! Conscientious and righteous American people should wake up and realize how distorted the news are presented to them from a standpoint of corrupt and over-satiated companies who are also part of this huge scheme. The manipulation that we discuss here is just the tip of the iceberg.

[Lee]

As an American I can say I know full well that our attitudes can be cutthroat and don’t take to well to losing. Though I would say this quality is mirrored in the majority of the human populace. The post modern subjective always seeks to affirm itself through the perceived shortcomings of others. What really makes trait objectionable in the case of American’s, is the unwieldy ignorance of the rest of the world that comes into play when we define ourselves as a country. It’s this ignorance that refuses to afford other countries any reasonable amount of consideration, an act which, in and of itself, is greatly insulting. As a people we have gotten quite used to being the center of attention as the world’s wealthiest nation (not per capita, that one goes to Japan), have come to believe it isn’t necessary to know anything of the world beyond our borders, and challenged to our established economic and cultural on any level bring about unseemly reactions. I can see why may people here appear not to be from the states and seem to think our press is representing us as sore losers, and I think you’re right. But the last time I checked, when the English represented the center of the world they behaved like rather sordid pricks themselves. I doubt what America is experiencing is truly unique to our country or if any country in similar circumstances would display the same troubling attitudes.

[Black Willy]

Where are you from, antarctica? I'm pretty sure every nation's 'media' is biased.. and in western countries, a wide spectrum of bias within the national bias.

I still can't see how it's manipulation in this situation that the medals table has been presented in America most often by total number won (at least during my 30 some years on earth); that, especially considering that the US has also won the most gold medals most times in my life time.

[Alex]

The problem with American sports is that they are gay. They are not hardened to proper competition.

For example,

American Football - Gay!! Right first things first, its not football. I mean for how many times during the match does the ball actually touch someones foot ? And whats with all that shoulder padding. Its like something out of Dynasty. If you wanted to be a REAL man, you should play a sport like Rugby... that sorts the men from the boys. Anyway who else plays this gay sport ?! The beauty about sports is that you can challenge other countries and have world competitions. I guess Americans just like to play with themselves !!! ;-)

Baseball - Gay!! We have a sport similiar to baseball but its called rounders. Mosrtly played by girls, and when you hit a good shot everybody chants "rounder, rounder, rounder". Got knows how this could get into the Olympics ?!?! A similiar mans sport however would be cricket, when you get delivered a 100 mph ball at your head or body. Oh and its a world sport where different countries compete against another.

Basketball - Gay!! Another stupid sport unless your some freak of nature and look like a giraffe.

Funniest thins once was when I went to an American Baseball match. The stadium uses a PA system to play stupid jingles. Its like an annoying ringtone, but I think its designed to wake the crowd up from their slumber.... oh god its only the 4th innings !? Just goes to show how boring these sports must be. Ive never been to a Football, Rugby, Cricket match where they have to play kiddie chants to work the crowd up.

American sports = gay, gay, gay

No wonder you guys have to count that Bronze = Gold ! LOL

[Possum O'Connor]

I'm not convinced Alex meets the 13 year old age limit. What do the Chinese papers say on this?

[im better than you]

"Looking at government investment doesn't really work, unless you factor in the GDP. For example, the US can afford not to invest much from a governmental standpoint because its population is wealthy enough for most families to finance their children's participation in sports. On the other hand, in a country like China, despite having a much larger population, a large portion of the population is still extremely poor (keep in mind that 8 years ago, the per capita gdp of China was still approximately 800 USD). You can't really compare... "
Oh really? smart guy what about countries like canada which has a fairly high GDP higher than China, But for the past two olympics Canada haven't been doing too well in terms of medal. and sometimes it's even getting beat by some countries such as north korea a country which could barely feed its people.....

[Sid]

Maybe Jamaica or some other small country could use "medal per capita" or "gold medal per capita" to sort the list.. but they didn't. AFAIK only the American media is doing something like this. You tell me what that tells you.

[Titus]

Me and my fren were laughing to ourselves when we found that US was the only country i seen so far that rates theselves based on total golds.

to paraphrase the writer: 'It is no surprise that US media are among the very few worldwide that list the medal standings by total medals rather than gold, where the United States leads."

critise china for tibet. only e saints will invade iraq n afghanistan

[CMH]

Leave it to the Brits to argue that air rifle and badmiton are just as important as swimming, gymnastics or track! Clearly all events are not created equal and it shouldn't surprise anyone that China, a country of 1.5 billion people, could come out on top in a game of counting medals. I think the most impressive counrty so far is Jamaica - they win real events without huge government subsidies and despite their small population and low income levels.

[antarctica]

The deal with Canada is, they do not wage pre-emptive wars against weak countries and demolish all their already poor infrastructure, lead 1 million people to death and 4 million to displacement. Also, many parts of Canada experience extremely cold temperatures for about 5-6 months a year. They also do not invent lame pretexts like WMD, or nonexistent links between terror organizations and innocent local people. They do not torture unindicted people in a remote island for several years just because their names look alike some bad guys' names. They do not manipulate everything in their power to reach and exploit energy resources at all costs. Why do you think the US occupied Iraq? Because it has the 4th largest oil reserve in the World! Why do they want to attack Iran? Because it has the 3rd largest reserve. Cheap oil for spoiled Americans' XL asses and SUV's at the expense of the blood of poor innocent people. Pretty good deal, huh? By the way, the US consumes %26 percent of all the energy in the World. More than 1/4 of energy goes to 300 million people, and the remaning 6.3 billion will have to get by with the rest.

By the way, there should be also a new Olympic branch called "couch potato". And we all know well who is the rightful owner of the gold medal here!

[Kerry]

China is doing great in the Olympics. Nice job. USA is doing great in the Olympics.
Nice job.

Let some keep count by Gold. Let some keep count by a total count.

It's all good.

[Tom]

You people make it sound like the US just changed the way medals are counted, when in fact, the US has counted medals like this since the first games. Get it? Nothing has changed, this is how they've done it before, this is how they do it now, and this is how they will do it in the future. They aren't changing anythign because they are behind in Gold medals.

http://tinyurl.com/5o4gkl

Notice 1964 where the US had more Gold medals, but finished 6 behind the Soviet union in total medals, and was listed 2nd behind the Soviet Union. The same in 1896 & 1912.

The US might finish behind China in Golds, and maybe even total medals, but at least they don't hide their 6 year old singers because they aren't pretty enough. uggh!

[passerby]

The way US media 'interprets' the medal standing, which is contrary to the rest of the world, could be understood. Which nation doesn't want to top the medal standing table? If they (US media) think they could make the US general public feel better by doing that, then go for it. But I believe US people are not stupid. Although the US media could possibly please part of their target audience, they don't earn any respect from the world.

[dingo_sl]

Who cares how the media arranges the standing?
I know everybody realizes China kicked our butt this time. Some just don't like to admit it openly. Nobody likes losing, especially when we were so dominate in the past.

I do see how this method of moral boost can be seen as an attempt at saving face for the rest of the world though...

[American]

Not sure what most of your problems with America is in the first place. Most of us don't care how many Golds we have, or silver and bronze for that matter. I enjoy the olympics regardless to who wins. China is doing well, and should be congradulated for its performance. But for any one to down talk america for not taking home 60+ golds is just ubsured. While through out history America as a combined total of 2483 medals (including 08 so far) while the number two contry only has 1204. Say what you want about the medal counts. Either way America has been, and will be a tough contry to compete with. The games are not over, and there is still a chance for America to out do China, then what would ya'll have to say?

[Praetorian]

Yeah, yeah. We're getting our a**ses handed to us in ping pong, badminton, women's weight lifting, diving and men's gymnastics.

Oh. The. Shame.

Cheers,
prat

Enough is enouth. I think both ways to calculate medal ranking has its reasoning:

Is a country with 1 gold but no silver stronger in sports than another country with no gold but 20 silver?

Then again, is a country with 2 gold 18 silver stronger in sports than another coutnry with 15 gold but no silver?

Some Americans are so self-centered that they just can't take any loss and they feel mad. So they behaved like a cry baby seeking every opportunity to blame on others for their own problem.

For some Chinese (or some institution), they think wining Gold medal is the only way to show how "GREAT" China is, and they would do anything to get GOLD Medals. I think sports in China should become mass root hobby,not just reserved for a tiny group of top level trained professionals. China still has a long way to go i